Category: Finance markets

You think it’s bad *here*?

19 August, 2008 (10:09) | Finance markets, Housing, Markets, US News, United Kingdom | No comments

 
As we watch the US housing and capital markets struggle to find their equilibrium, there’s no question we are experiencing a worldwide phenomenon – and even allowing for the parochial lenses through which Americans receive news of other people’s markets, I think it’s clear that however much disturbance we are facing in the US markets, [...]

Negotiating your rating: Part 3, the circumstantial evidence

25 April, 2008 (09:52) | Finance markets, Rating agencies, Subprime, Theory, US News | No comments

[Continued from the previous Part 1 and Part 2.]
 

For the previous two days, we’ve been delving into whether, as implied by a Wall Street Journal article on the rating agencies, Moody’s got so cozy with the issuers it was rating, and who were paying its fees, that it succumbed to grade inflation.
 
 [For background on the [...]

Negotiating your rating: Part 2, the rough and tumble

24 April, 2008 (09:10) | Finance markets, Rating agencies, Subprime, Theory, US News | 1 comment

[Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]

 
Yesterday we tackled a tough subject — how much opportunity should an issuer have to work with a rating agency to achieve a target result?
 
[For background on the rating agencies, see my five-part post from last August, A Symbiote's Life is Not a Happy One, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part [...]

Negotiating your rating: Part 1, the ivory tower

23 April, 2008 (09:08) | Finance markets, Rating agencies, Subprime, Theory, US News | No comments

How much opportunity should an issuer have to work with a rating agency to achieve a target result?
 
[For background on the rating agencies, see my five-part post from last August, A Symbiote's Life is Not a Happy One, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.]
 

 
Mel: You mean to tell me that you [...]